Another Way to Fall

Mr Spelling suppressed a gentle laugh. ‘Yes, Monday should be fine,’ he said.

The white-gowned bodies disappeared as quickly and silently as they had arrived, ghostly spectres that had completed their dark deed for the day. The screen curtain was pushed back against the wall, officially releasing Emma from her visitation, but she felt more trapped than ever.

Meg cleared her throat, swallowing a torrent of unshed tears that she wouldn’t allow Emma to see. ‘Want to talk about it?’

Emma shook her head slightly. ‘Not yet.’

‘You should get some rest then.’

Emma knew she was right but the steroids she was taking made her edgy and restless and the temptation to pick up her laptop was becoming hard to resist. It felt safer filling her mind with words than allowing time to reflect on what else might be lurking in there. ‘I will when I’m ready.’

Meg remained frozen to the spot where she had been sitting throughout Mr Spelling’s visit. ‘You’re not on your own, Emma,’ she said, taking a deep breath that lifted her head and pulled back her shoulders. Emma was reminded of a lioness raising her eyes to the horizon, sniffing out the dangers that threatened one of her cubs.

‘I know,’ she said although right now she would have been quite happy to have some time on her own. As that thought registered, Emma realized that she hadn’t thought about Alex once.

She had been dating him for almost a year, her longest relationship to date and her only relationship in the last five years. Whilst her friends from university had been busy settling down and starting families, Emma’s future had followed a different path, one that felt like walking a tightrope where each step was a leap of faith. There had seemed little point in searching for someone to share her life with when she didn’t know how long, or how brief that life might be. It had been a complete surprise when her close working relationship with Alex at Bannister’s Kitchens and Bathrooms turned into something far more intimate, although, she noted, not so intimate that he was there by her side today.

At first, his claim to have a phobia of hospitals had seemed a tad convenient but when she had seen the look of abject terror on his face on the one occasion he had visited her, she had been tempted to believe him and hadn’t pushed him since. ‘I should ring Alex,’ she said.

‘And I need to let Louise know what’s happening,’ Meg said, standing up and taking a tentative step away from the bed.

‘I’ll be fine, Mum,’ Emma replied. Louise was four years younger than Emma and was still considered the baby of the family but she hoped her sister would provide a better shoulder for her mum to cry on than she could. ‘But tell her she doesn’t have to come in. Friday nights at the bistro are too busy and she can’t afford to pay for extra cover.’

‘Now isn’t the time to worry about the bistro,’ Meg told her forcefully as she picked up her purse. ‘Louise is going to have to learn to stand on her own two feet.’

‘Yes, and she will,’ agreed Emma, as if prophesying her own doom. ‘But I’m still here and she’s still my little sister. I want to help her while I can.’ Meg nodded and her forced smile squeezed out the first tear, which they both dutifully ignored. ‘I meant what I said, Emma. You’re not on your own and I’m going to do my damnedest to get you through this. If Mr Spelling can’t help you beat this thing then I’ll find someone who can.’

‘You can’t fight this for me, Mum,’ Emma told her.

Meg looked down, playing with a seam on her purse rather than meeting Emma’s gaze. She looked more vulnerable than Emma had ever seen her. ‘I know I can’t. I wish I could but I know I can’t.’

‘I need to be realistic and I don’t want to hold on to false hopes. Do the research if you must but in the meantime, let me deal with this my way. I want to make the most of the time I have left,’ Emma began but the words caught in her throat as she realized what she had said. ‘I mean the time I have before I start treatment, the treatment Mr Spelling is offering me.’

Meg smiled through her pain. ‘All right, but I am insisting on one thing. I want you to move back home with me.’

Heat rose in Emma’s chest, a toxic mix of panic and anger. She felt like she was being pulled back in time to when she had first been diagnosed. Back then she had been forced to give up a promising marketing career in London and return home to Liverpool and her mother’s care. She had stayed with her for nearly two years before summoning up the courage to move out. The thought of giving up her independence once again was too much to bear.

‘But your apartment isn’t big enough for all of us,’ Emma told her, playing for time as the dust settled on the latest bombshell to hit her that morning.

At the moment, Louise was staying in Meg’s spare room, having rented out her own flat above the bistro when her business started to flounder six months ago. ‘Don’t worry, I’m not under any illusions that you and your sister could share a room,’ said Meg. ‘But right now your needs come first and I’ve already run the idea past Louise. She’s going to move out.’

‘So much for positive thinking,’ accused Emma as she realized her mum had been planning for the worst despite insisting that everything would be alright.

Meg chose to ignore the comment. ‘You can’t manage on your own, Emma. There’s your medication to keep track of, not to mention the possibility you could have more seizures, and then there’s just the simple fact that someone needs to keep an eye on you, look out for any changes which you might not notice yourself. At the very least, you need help building up your strength so you’re strong enough to deal with, well, whatever awaits us.’

‘Me, whatever awaits me,’ corrected Emma. ‘I’m twenty-nine years old, Mum, and I’ve grown up a lot in the last few years. I’ve had to. I can look after myself and, besides, I don’t live alone.’

Emma shared a house with Ally and Gina. She had known Ally from school and it had been her oldest and dearest friend who had been instrumental in securing her a job at Bannister’s as well as aiding her escape from her mum’s clutches. She would do all she could to help Emma stay in the house if it was what she wanted but Emma already knew that placing that kind of responsibility on someone’s shoulders was too much to ask of anyone, anyone that was except the one person who would always give her love and support unconditionally.

‘And I have Alex,’ Emma added but as the words slipped off her tongue in a last desperate attempt to make her case, she knew the argument had already been lost. The idea that Alex would be there for her wasn’t particularly credible when he was already conspicuous by his absence. ‘I’ll have to speak to the girls first. They’ll have to find another lodger.’ Meg shifted uneasily and Emma’s eyes widened in shock. ‘You’ve already spoken to them too?’ she gasped.

‘They said not to worry. You come first. We all want what’s best for you.’

‘I think you had better go and phone Louise,’ Emma said.

In her wisdom, Meg nodded but said no more. She had won the argument but the tone in Emma’s voice suggested that the decision could still be overturned.

As Emma watched her mum disappear down the ward, she desperately felt for her phone. Pulling it from her pyjama pocket, she imagined Alex anxiously waiting for her call.

Emma’s phone had been switched to silent mode all morning. No telltale vibration had announced a missed call or text message but the empty call list still left her disappointed. With a heavy heart, Emma tapped briefly on the keypad and waited for the call to be answered.

‘Emma?’ Alex shouted over pounding music and inane chatter.

‘Where are you?’ Emma asked, as loudly as she dared. The ward was deathly silent other than the occasional groan from a fellow patient or the clatter of a hospital trolley.

‘We’re having lunch at the pub,’ he explained. ‘The latest sales figures are looking really good and Mr Bannister insisted. I couldn’t refuse.’ There was a pause as Alex waited for Emma’s response. Her silence prompted him to ask what she had expected to be the first thing on his mind. ‘But enough about me, I’ve been thinking about you all morning. How did it go? What’s the news?’

Emma became acutely aware of how life beyond the confines of the hospital walls had been carrying on regardless – another blow to her bruised emotions. Her earth-shattering news hadn’t even caused a ripple. She felt a brief swell of anger as she imagined their celebrations, celebrations that she should be party to. She deserved a pat on the back as much as anyone but her anger was swiftly quashed by a more powerful wave of despair. There were worse things in life. ‘My tumour’s back,’ she said stoically.

The background noise continued unaffected.

‘Alex? Are you still there?’

‘I’m sorry, Em. I really am,’ he said. ‘I feel so bad that I wasn’t there for you. I wanted to be with you, honestly I did.’

‘It’s alright,’ Emma said, surprising herself that she should be the one comforting him so quickly but that was so often the way. She hated her illness, not simply for what it was doing to her but the hurt it inflicted on those around her. ‘I’ll speak to you over the weekend when you’re less busy but I should be out on Monday anyway.’

‘I’ll come over to see you then, I promise.’

‘There’s just one thing,’ Emma told him. ‘I’m going to have to move back in with Mum for a while.’

‘Maybe that’s for the best. You’ll need a lot of looking after.’

Emma was tempted to tell him that she wanted him to look after her. She wanted him to be the one to wrap her in his arms and tell her she was going to be alright but she took the easy option. She said nothing.

‘We’ll get you through this,’ he added. ‘We’ll all help.’

‘I know,’ she said, but she didn’t know at all. It was an automated response to an automated offer and perhaps they both knew it.

‘I’d better go,’ Alex said to fill the pause, ‘but we’ll speak soon. Love you, Em.’

Emma kept the phone to her ear until her link to everyday life was severed and silence returned. She felt drained as she closed her eyes and she didn’t resist when she began to slip towards slumber, freeing her mind to take her on a journey of its own.

In her dreams she was still sitting in Mr Spelling’s sun-filled office, looking out of the window towards a group of forlorn trees. A handful of bedraggled leaves, silhouetted against the crisp blue sky. Her focus centred on a single leaf that had survived the autumn gales, holding on staunchly to its branch as it prepared to brave the winter frost. Without warning, a vicious gust of wind spun it into the air, where it twirled out of control, leaving sparks of orange and gold as it fluttered in the sunshine. Its descent was inevitable and it came to rest on a pile of leaves whose skeletal remains were being crunched underfoot by passersby who were blissfully unaware of the devastation around them. Emma tried to look away but the vision followed her as she twisted and turned to escape its grasp.

‘Emma, are you OK?’ Meg asked as she gently brushed away strands of Emma’s damp hair from her sweaty brow.

Emma opened her eyes but struggled to emerge from her dream. She felt disorientated and for a moment she was transported back twenty years. She half expected her mum to tell her that she had the flu and wouldn’t be going to school that day.